Sky Q Hub and RT-AC87U - how to configure?

[Jack Yaz]

Hi,

My mum is finally getting Sky Fibre, and along with it a Sky Q Hub. While I understand you can buy a VDSL modem and packet sniff the username and password for MER, I'm led to believe it's a breach of Sky's T&Cs, which she isn't willing to do.

So, what is the best configuration to use the Sky Q hub as a modem only, or close to, since it lacks a bridge mode? Do I just set the DMZ on Sky to point to the Asus, and disable DHCP and Wifi etc. in the Sky Q hub?

 

[JDB]

I went round this a few times.
Best option is to get a VDSL Modem (the Openreach one is simplest to get hold of off ebay and will keep Sky/BT Wholesale happy).

I disabled all the Sky Q wireless mesh stuff as it's crap!


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[JDB]

I should add, I pay for Sky Fibre Pro which gets me a static IP and the ability to use my own modem. However, I had the Openreach Modem/ASUS in and working before I did that.

No sniffing required, just use "install@o2broadband.co.uk|password" on the option 61 and clone the MAC addr

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[Jack Yaz]

I went round this a few times.
Best option is to get a VDSL Modem (the Openreach one is simplest to get hold of off ebay and will keep Sky/BT Wholesale happy).

I disabled all the Sky Q wireless mesh stuff as it's crap!


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I was going to be disabling the mesh, I wired the house up with gigabit before I moved out, due to the walls proving to destroy any reliable WiFi performance in some rooms.

I've seen the Vigor 130 mentioned a lot. Presumably if there's a fault just swap the modems back before an engineer? Or do Sky really not care about people using their own modems?

 

[Jack Yaz]

I should add, I pay for Sky Fibre Pro which gets me a static IP and the ability to use my own modem. However, I had the Openreach Modem/ASUS in and working before I did that.

No sniffing required, just use "install@o2broadband.co.uk|password" on the option 61 and clone the MAC addr

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o2broadband?

 

[JDB]

Sky only ever send BT Openreach engineers for fibre faults, so if they see an Openreach Modem they are happy.

There are 2 options, Huawei or ECI.
The Huawei you can hack to get web UI access and stats.
However you really should look at what the DSLAMS are in the cabinet and match the Modem to them (tho I have tried both and got the same results)


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[JDB]

Sky bought O2's DSL network years ago


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[Jack Yaz]

Sky only ever send BT Openreach engineers for fibre faults, so if they see an Openreach Modem they are happy.

There are 2 options, Huawei or ECI.
The Huawei you can hack to get web UI access and stats.
However you really should look at what the DSLAMS are in the cabinet and match the Modem to them (tho I have tried both and got the same results)


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How do I find out the DSLAMs?

 

[JDB]

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/cabinet-lookup.htm#fttc_cab_info


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[Jack Yaz]

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/cabinet-lookup.htm#fttc_cab_info


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I'm familiar with that site, that's how I determined the cabinet upgrade (took them long enough to get to it!) I'll check it out, thanks

 

[JDB]

No worries. Ping me if you get stuck on anything. It took me a while to get the Sky Q stuff to play ball as I wanted! Sky customer services will just keep telling you to use the mesh stuff which is obviously not useful!

Mines been in and working for well over a year with 0 issues. When I first got Sky Q I had 3 months of headaches trying to use their wireless/modem, then I got the Asus, spent a month working out how to get them to talk, and now all good!


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[Jack Yaz]

No worries. Ping me if you get stuck on anything. It took me a while to get the Sky Q stuff to play ball as I wanted! Sky customer services will just keep telling you to use the mesh stuff which is obviously not useful!

Mines been in and working for well over a year with 0 issues. When I first got Sky Q I had 3 months of headaches trying to use their wireless/modem, then I got the Asus, spent a month working out how to get them to talk, and now all good!


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DSLAM is Huawei by the looks of it. I might see how she gets on with the Q Hub and wired to the Minis, since she won't be using half of what Merlin FW can do. Though I imagine it wont be long until my brother is crying for QoS when Netflix soaks up his gaming bandwidth!

 

[muffintastic]

"Breaching T&C" this is just scare tactics from Sky, I'm happily using a VDSL modem and AC3200 running Merlin F/W without any issues for nearly 3yrs, I've had no C&D letter what-so-ever. This is just because Sky won't support 3rd party equipment if you have issues, best thing to do is keep that rubbish Sky Q router packed up for fault testing if it comes to the obvious.

The Sky equipment isn't up-to-par even with the new router.

It's only a breach if you're network tampering which you can't do anyways.

 

[AndreiV]

I've seen the Vigor 130 mentioned a lot. Presumably if there's a fault just swap the modems back before an engineer? Or do Sky really not care about people using their own modems?

I use the Vigor 130 , it is perfectly okay to use with BT/Openreach as it is fully compatible and has all the necessary certification of compliance. You do not need to remove/hide it from engineers.

 

[muffintastic]

I use the Vigor 130 , it is perfectly okay to use with BT/Openreach as it is fully compatible and has all the necessary certification of compliance. You do not need to remove/hide it from engineers.

Last time I had a BTO engineer come he never battered an eye-lid that's how much they care. I wouldn't stress about it same goes for the original OP's post.

 

[Jack Yaz]

Last time I had a BTO engineer come he never battered an eye-lid that's how much they care. I wouldn't stress about it same goes for the original OP's post.

As far as configuring Vigor goes, is it easy enough? Im assuming just plug in, enter credentials, Set bridge modE?

 

[JDB]

Should be also zero, credentials go on the Asus


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[muffintastic]

As far as configuring Vigor goes, is it easy enough? Im assuming just plug in, enter credentials, Set bridge modE?

Plenty of YT tutorials and Google is Your Friend. You would need to capture the login details from WireShark basically, flash Merlin's F/W and enter the details, and you would obviously need a BTO modem, or preferably an unlocked one from a popular auction site.

How to extract username/password: http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/extr...-how-get-username-password-sky-hub-sr101.html - Same method applies to a Sky Q router.

 

[JDB]

Plenty of YT tutorials and Google is Your Friend. You would need to capture the login details from WireShark basically, flash Merlin's F/W and enter the details, and you would obviously need a BTO modem, or preferably an unlocked one from a popular auction site.

How to extract username/password: http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/extr...-how-get-username-password-sky-hub-sr101.html - Same method applies to a Sky Q router.

Having the Vigor 130 removes the need for a BTO Modem.

Interestingly BT sell/endorse them directly https://m.shop.bt.com/products/draytek-vigor-130-adsl2--vdsl-modem-v130-k-B230.html


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[AndreiV]

As far as configuring Vigor goes, is it easy enough? Im assuming just plug in, enter credentials, Set bridge modE?

It's plug and play , that simple. Out of the box it works in pass through mode , if you need streaming TV then you set the modem into Bridge mode. The instructions are in the Draytek support pages :
https://www.draytek.co.uk/support/guides/kb-vigor-130-bridge?highlight=WyJJUFRWIl0=&return=9962550

When connected to an Asus router the Vigor's stats can be obtained via 192.168.2.1 in a browser, without the need to move leads etc.